Because — for real for real this time — this could determine whether there’s a playoff life hereafter for Toronto.

Oh, not mathematically. As Nazem Kadri so foolishly mused aloud earlier in the week, while the Leafs were still amidst a full-blown slump, the club could survive another loss in their remaining six-pack of games if other teams parrying for Eastern Conference positioning do them some favours.

But the statistical odds of edging into the post-season — currently pegged at 8.6 per cent — will shrink to magnifying glass proportions if two points aren’t racked up in Thursday evening’s encounter. Against, as fate would have it, the hottest squad in the NHL, coming off a 15-1-1 March.

Yet there was Jake Gardiner, after an optional practice Wednesday, claiming with wide-eyed ingenuity that Toronto — ahem, just a day removed from an eight-game losing trough, the Slides of March — is no puny pushover for the Bruins. “We think we match up well against Boston.”

Say again?

“I’m just going back to last year in the playoffs. Obviously it didn’t end well but I think we all elevate our game against them. They’re one of the top teams in the league and it seems like we’re always prepared to play them.”

Let’s not get carried away here. It’s true the Leafs can take encouragement from their acquittal the last time these two outfits met — a 4-3 victory for Toronto on Jan. 14 right in the TD Garden. The same unfriendly environs where the Leafs, nobody needs reminding, took a brace off the home side in the first playoff round last May. Before, nobody needs reminding, that epic Game 7 collapse. Eleven Leafs who dressed in Tuesday’s 3-2 win over Calgary were present for the best, and the worst, of that series.

Gardiner made no reference to Toronto’s two other matches with Boston this season, both losses. Nor, say, to the 57-23 goal differential the churning Bruins have amassed through their past 16 games. Nor the 28 points that separated Boston from Toronto in the conference. Nor the roll that Jarome Iginla, to cite but one of the “A” B-stars, has been on since the Olympic break, with 13 goals and five assists. Nor the ditto-roll for Patrice Bergeron, 18 points through March.

Bergeron, a plus-36 by the way, is also master-of-the-dot in the NHL, with a leading 58.8 percentage on faceoffs.

“On all four of their lines, they’ve got guys who are good on faceoffs,” observes Tyler Bozak, who’s cheek-by-jowl with Jay McClement in that Leaf regard. “It starts with Bergeron. He’s one of the best in the league year-in and year-out. Those guys have great timing and they’re strong. Their wingers are willing to jump in, help out a lot. They kind of work as a full group on the faceoffs.”

They kind of work as a group on everything.

Yet Gardiner isn’t totally out of his mind. The Leafs have played some of their best hockey in recent history against the Bruins, nearly knocking the Beantown colossi out of the playoffs 13 months ago. There are three further factors from which Toronto can take heart: 1) Boston isn’t in a desperate mood, all but assured of finishing the season atop the conference. 2) They arrived in town after losing 3-2 to the Red Wings in Detroit Wednesday night. 3) There are reports the Bruins will opt to rest some of their studs, primarily captain D-man Zdeno Chara.

Vezina Trophy contender and ex-Toronto property Tuukka Rask might cede the net to backup Chad Johnson. But the Leafs will recall how Johnson set them aside 5-2 in early December.

Aw heck. There’s zilch sensible reason to believe Toronto can boost their quixotic ambitions off the Bruins — unless they play up to the opposition. “Just moving the puck quick, a possession game, and limit our turnovers,” said Gardiner. “They’ve got some weapons out front so we can’t give them puck.”

Which, of course, is the gospel that Randy Carlyle was preaching throughout the recent horrors.

Tough times, the coach wryly acknowledged. “You think?”

That’s two days off Carlyle has, unusually, given his players since Monday, though on Wednesday the troops reported for light dry-land stretching, the general tenor of the dressing room lifted immensely with the slump squelched.

“Not so much a reward,” said Carlyle. “It’s more that we’ve got some banged up bodies. More about saving some energy for the game (Thursday). We’re dwindling down to the last week and we want to make sure that we’ve got as much energy as we can.”

A daunting task, these Bruins, even on the back-end of back-to-back games.

“If there’s one thing that you can look to from Boston, they don’t really change,” Carlyle mused. “They don’t change their template.” (A favourite Carlyle word, that.) “They move people in and out of their lineup and they have to play that way. If they don’t, they don’t play, simple as that.”

From the Leafs’ perspective, they have everything to lose.

“There’s a level of desperation that goes into it from our standpoint,” Carlyle continued. “When you play teams of that calibre, you have to be on top of your game. You have to be playing at your highest level.

“You’ve got to be prepared to earn your space on the rink.”

But where was that desperation as the situation became increasingly dire for Toronto since that inspirational win in Los Angeles March 13?

“I don’t know if you can say desperation wasn’t there. I wouldn’t look at it that way. It would look at it ... there was frustration and our inability to execute and mental breakdowns. What happened is the nervousness grasped our group at times and we just seemed to get into that freeze mode.”

The freeze arose at junctures against Calgary too, Carlyle noted.

“Those are the things that make you shake your head and bang your head against the wall — why are we doing that?”

Don’t go banging, coach. It hurts.

Might crush that red Horizon Underground baseball cap Carlyle was wearing on Wednesday, to boot. He explained its provenance.

“Somebody scored a hat-trick and the trainer in Anaheim gave it to me.”

So that’s where they go ...

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